Author Archives: Jessica Miller-Merrell

How Large Corporations Recruit on Twitter

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

Twitter is becoming increasingly popular for companies to distribute relevant job search advice and job opportunities. As a company, if you’re out there with a twitter handle dedicated to pushing out employment opportunities and job search advice, don’t lose sleep if you can’t figure out the right mix. We’ve come up with a few suggestions on how to handle your own account and examples of how Fortune 500 companies use theirs.
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Hiring as a Team Leads to Better Hires

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

As business practices adapt to workforce’s new generations, more companies will adopt a collaborative hiring processes. The group, instead of a single manager, will be the decision makers. I’m not saying buy in from leadership doesn’t help (it does); management should set the expectation and guidelines. However, the success of current employees drive the acquisition of new employees. To overcome the time commitment and locality limitations of hiring, having a good hiring system should be the first order of business. Read more

What Parenting Taught Me About Hiring

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

Parenting a toddler takes patience, consistency and a really good sense of humor. These traits help the hiring manager or recruiter when dealing with New Hires or Soon to be New Hires. While most quality candidates usually don’t behave like children, there are some similarities in negotiating that could make you wonder if as the hiring manager, you REALLY are everyone’s parent or if toddlers are a lot smarter than moms and dads give them credit for.
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The 3 Most Universal Tells in an Interview

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

Aside from the actual job offer itself, interviewing a candidate is the single most important part of the recruitment. While sourcing and posting your online job ad is never easy, the interview process can be long, intense, and complicated. The interview relies on two people, typically the hiring manager and the job seeker to meet, engage, share, and develop a relationship with one another. Not every job seeker that meshes well with the interviewer is the ideal candidate for the position. Sometimes personal preferences, interests, and commonalities get in the way of a great hire.
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How Packing a Suitcase is Like Writing a Job Ad

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

I am a master packer. Seriously, I am a pro. I once fit a weeklong trip to London from Oklahoma City in a carry on suitcase and a backpack complete with an assortment of clothes and work items like my phone, laptop, camera, and the assorted array of cords that accompany such things.

Proper packing of a suitcase takes planning, organization, and a little flair. For example, I like to roll up my clothing very tightly fitting more in a smaller space. Items are packed in order of priority and their importance with the most used items being packed last. All this organization, planning, and strategy can be applied to writing your job ad.
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Employer Branding is People Talking About You

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

When it comes to social media within an organization, often times the company wants to control the message. For years our company leaders have believed that they could control the employee populations or positioning with a simple company memo or manager meeting talking points. Enter social media, and the corporate world – and how the story of the corporate world is heard – has changed forever. The company can no longer control the message, and personally, that idea was always a fantasy; the employer never really could.
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Why HR Bloggers Defy Traditional HR

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

In 2007 when I started my life as an HR blogger I had no idea that I’d be “here” today. I had given a professional blog some thought to differentiate myself among other HR professionals who served as my professional competition in the city where I lived. As a middle manager human resource director, I’ve always had a point of view. It just got lost in translation or sidelined due to office politics. I was of tired of not having a voice. Read more

Hiring by Algorithm. The New Self-Checkout of HR

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

Last week I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that discussed a hiring strategy by Xerox involving big data. When it comes to their customer service call centers, they are leaving the traditional interview process behind and hiring solely based on how candidates score using a test. Welcome to the bright and brave new world of hiring with big data.

I call this hiring by algorithm, and apparently it works for them. Read more

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